Fav New Toy: Steam Juicer!

The steam juicer: top is for the berries, middle
collects the juice, bottom is water.

So, we make some jelly around here.  And drink some smoothies.  So, we like fresh juice!  Previously, to make jelly, I boiled a big pot of berries in water, slopped the mixture into a jelly bag and let it drip.  Frequently, I made a mess ladling the berries into the jelly bag.  Frequently the jelly bag on its' silly little stand wanted to tip over, or over-flow.  Or I had too many berries for one jelly bag full.  In the canning blogs and such that I follow I heard more and more praises for the steam juicer; I talked to CSAers Norma and Merle who have a lot of experience with one and love theirs.  So I finally decided to invest in one.

I LOVE this thing!  Henry and Derrick picked about four ice cream pails of Nanking cherries for me last night.  In my new life with a steam juicer, after cleaning them I just poured them all into the steamer, filled the bottom with water, put it on the stove, put the over-flow tube into the storage jar and....walked away and did something else for an hour!  When the recommended time was up, I just emptied the receptacle into the jar and cleaned up!  So easy!  And good juice!

I set the over-flow tube into the storage jar,
and got quite a bit of over-flow, but I had
really stuffed the top!

I got a very good deal on amazon.com (yes that's .com not .ca) for a stainless steel 10 quart juicer.  I may eventually regret the smaller size - my four ice cream pails of Nankings just barely fit in, although their volume did go down with the steaming.  For many home canners the size may be more than enough but we're doing things on a slightly larger scale sometimes.  The included instructions were poor (and English was definitely not the author's first language....), but there is plenty of info online and in canning books on using the gizmo.  The instructions do give times for juicing veggies and herbs, which I hadn't given much thought to but I like the idea!  If you do any amount of juicing, I highly recommend one of these!

CSA for July 12, 2012!

First rinse of the 'Grand Rapids'!

Oh, My Heavens!  What a fabulous CSA pick up!  Thank you to all our members, such a nice evening seeing you all.  Some of our returning members moved to Thursday night and a delight to see them all! (Hi, Norma! Hi, Irene!  Almost too busy to talk to you!  And Irene, I owe you fifty cents for returning jam jars!)  So many new members on Thursday nights and it was so great to meet you all!  And so nice, even though it wasn't a fabulous box.  We've got a couple of people who volunteered to come help with some weeding (woot, woot!), we've got a fellow goat-keeper, love that we've got a day care picking up this year, and we've got some awesome fresh food-lovin' people, some of whom we know well from Farmers Markets!  I think we can throw anything at this group and we'll learn a few groovy cooking tips from them!

We were up at 6:00 AM to harvest raspberries and potatoes for CSA and were greeted by thunder, lightening and a steady rain before I even had my coffee finished!  Raspberries are quite delicate, and wet raspberries in a container are a recipe for mold and mush!  As the rain continued through the milking of the goats, feeding of chickens and right through 9:30 AM it became obvious we wouldn't be getting into the potato field.  (Leon, we promise, swear there will be new potatoes for Thursday's group next week!)  Finally got into the raspberries about 2:00 PM (just as it got hot) but only got a little pick.  A good taste for everybody, though!

We can absolutely use some rain - it's been so hot and dry and the dug-out has become half empty in the past week!  Once the rain quit it was still a little 'mushy' in a few spots but we got harvesting, albeit a little late!  It was relatively easy to pull onions and radishes.  I must say the lettuces were splattered with rain and quite filthy.  We've washed them but they are still going to need a really good rinse!  First little pick on zucchini's, although just enough this week for the Full Shares.

So in everybody's box this week:  Loose leaf lettuce 'Grand Rapids', baby Romaine lettuce, yellow onions, radish, garlic scapes, raspberries and, for the Full Shares only, some baby zucchinis - actually the perfect, gourmet size but many people at Farmers Markets don't want to believe us!  Don't worry, you will all get some big ones, too!  They just seem to appear overnight!

See you next week!

CSA for July 10th!

Wasn't exactly easy picking!

Ohhhhhh, it's nine at night and I'm late with this blog post.  I'm kind of mushy....it's sooooo hot.  It's still 29 C with a humidex of 38 C (about 110 F or something, isn't it?)  I had boldly stated that I would have the CSA blog post up by 8:00 PM but, once again, I forgot about the milking of goats!  The Mamas were almost in pain by the time we got home, and the babies were crying for food...so we changed out of our 'going-to-town' clothes and milked then bottled-fed the triplets.  Then we changed or topped up water for all goats, chickens, pigs, cats and dogs.  And fed the doggies, who were also kind of 'miffed' with us.  None of us are in the CSA groove, yet!

However, it's great to have one done, and super-fun to see everyone!  Some of our CSA members are now good buddies, and some we've only met through emails or phone calls, or seen at Farmers Markets but didn't really know the names.  It was so good to see everyone!

For how wrung-out I feel you would think it was a fabulous box today, but it wasn't.  When we got it all together and were ready to load the truck we thought it looked kind of disappointing.  Farmer Man may have spent too much time in the potatoes for not much poundage and I may have spent too much time in the raspberries for not too many pints:  but they're both really yummy!  First pick on the raspberries today and it wasn't easy to find them, but they're pretty darn good!  Our new helper Deborah certainly had a 'trial by fire' today, on her first day!  In this heat she spent time this morning with me in the raspberries, then early afternoon (in the serious heat) cutting lettuce, then getting it into big buckets of water!

In the boxes today everyone got the same things, just different amounts.  In the boxes are garlic scapes - the long, curly things.  If you love garlic you'll love scapes!  They have a mild, fresh garlic flavor.  The flavor is best when they're used raw; on cooking the dish is infused with a little garlic flavor but the sliced scapes themselves will taste a little like asparagus.  We love them crushed then mixed with cream cheese for an awesome spread or filling for an omelet, mixed with half mayo and half sour cream or Greek yogurt for a lovely dip!  They're beautiful on salads or sliced fine and sprinkled on those baby potatoes!

Everyone also got a bag of lettuce greens.  The main component is loose leaf 'Grand Rapids', perfect for salads or sandwiches.  There was also a little bundle of romaine, with the roots, so stand them in a glass of water!  Also included was a little bundle of rocket or arugula: a spice, slightly astringent salad green!  It can also be lightly sauteed or added to stir fries!

So in the boxes today:

FULL SHARES, PART SHARES AND SINGLE SHARES:  Bag of baby potatoes: a mix of red Aladin and Norland, white Carlton and Warba, and purple Caribe, garlic scapes, mixed lettuce bag with loose leaf, romaine and arugula, radishes, baby yellow onions, and raspberries.

The first CSA day wasn't without it's drama, of course.  Apparently, when I created email lists for Tuesdays and Thursdays I totally missed Mary and Brian.  They'd gotten the email about picking a Tuesday or Thursday but hadn't gotten anything further.  When I called them fifteen minutes before we leave the pick up site they were a little surprised, needless to say, but made it over.  Sorry, Mary and Brian!  Then, we have a new delivery for Edith, who is away and her neighbor Tracy is taking the delivery.  When we get out our map, their street is not listed!  I left a message for Tracy, and we start asking CSA members who drop by if they have a street map but the street wasn't listed.  Thank heavens for Marla, with her smart phone and smart ways, who googled it or something, and told me where it was!  Tracy did return my call just before we were heading over there and we had a good laugh about being in a new sub-division!  My favorite, though, has to be Suzanne's son John.  Suzanne was away and John (a lovely young man) was picking up for her.  He didn't have the correct info and when I called he was at our farm, thinking pick-up was there!  Fortunately, we're only five minutes from town, so he hadn't gone far!  We connected and he knows exactly where to pick up from now on!  I hope John didn't mind a wee drive in the country!  Oh, the fun of the first CSA pick up!

The Global Market Brandon Is So Much Fun!

Loved the ceramic plant markers!

So, Brandon has a new market: a market with so much more than just veggies!  This is a community-group based project, with the land donated by a business to the City.  It's a permanent, colourful installation with wooden beamed tents with bright colored awnings.  Such a great looking space.  The Global Market welcomes farmers, bakers, artisans, crafters and home-based businesses, so a great mix!

A shady food court!

We decided to join this market for various reasons, discussed here.  Grand Opening was Thursday night, running in conjunction with the popular 'Cruisin' the Dub' car show: something like six blocks of vintage cars on display.  What a fabulous evening!  The weather was perfect: not too hot, not too windy.  The place was rockin'!  We saw friends, neighbors, CSA members and previous Farmers Market customers - so much chatting and laughing!  What a great way to introduce a new market.  There was live music to groove to supplied by the Majestics, a couple of food trucks providing good food, the occasional roar of an engine and lots and lots of people!

Awesome traditional Hispanic baking!

Grand Opening on Thursday night had a couple of us fresh veggie vendors, some fabulous handmade art including paintings and ceramics, two vendors of gorgeous locally produced jewellery - one classic metal based and the other had intricate, almost woven earrings, very cool!  There was an hispanic bakery (where I scored some scrumptious coconut buns).  There was a home-based business selling earth-friendly cleaning products (including Norwex re-usable cleaning cloths - which I adore, mine is about five years old now and still going strong after many washes!) and a seller of Epicure, with yummy gourmet spices, rubs and other edibles!  You could have also picked up some CD's or DVD's and some vintage toys from a couple of different small business people!  Such a great variety!

Smilin' Hugh and his son-in-law!

Friday, in conjunction with Brandon's Multi-cultural Festival, there was another market and some great music!  We were back Saturday morning and there were more veggies producers (Ray had fresh peas, don't know how he got those so early!)  There was another jewellery vendor with, again, cool different stuff, and 'Lady of the Lake' was offering coffee, some tasty and healthy smoothies and some awesome baking!  We were really enjoying a busker - a guitar player!  As we were leaving in the early afternoon a painter was setting up with some gorgeous, large scale abstract art!  Such variety at the Global Market!

Adorn yourself or start your
Christmas shopping!

The Global Market has a great new website, so you can keep up on entertainment, special events and such:  check it out here.  They are also on Facebook and Twitter, like us, if you want to know what's going on right now!  Market days, right now, will be officially Fridays afternoon and evenings until 7:00 PM, and Saturdays all day.  The Funky Food truck is there six days a week serving from lunch to dinner!  The Jamaican food truck is open during the evenings right now, I do believe.  We'll be doing Friday's from 4:00 to 7:00 PM, and Saturday mornings from 9:00 AM to noonish.  There will lots of different entertainment!  More veggies producers are coming as their crops come in, more of the vendors from the International Women's Market will be coming and lots of crafters will be coming-and-going each week!  What a great place to do your shopping!  I'm already starting my Christmas shopping: the jewellery and ceramics will be great for so many of the people on my shopping list!  Love shopping local as much as we can!  When you drop by the Global Market, please do come say hello! 

Keeping Cool...While Cleaning The Barn!

Fourteen loads like this!

 It's steamy hot here in Manitoba - with the Humidex +37 C (105 F or something close)!  Farmer Man decided today was the day to clean the barn.  We've got a tour of children coming tomorrow and we want to look spiffy, right? And smell spiffy.....We're a little behind in 'mucking' out the barn, like everything else!  Plus, in really hot weather the excess straw, the inevitable wasted hay mixed with spilled water and urine, will break down quickly and just get dank and 'yucky'.  There's a technical farm term for you: yucky.  Nobody wants a yucky barn!

Where's my nest?

 A little gab fest in the shade!

Chillaxing!

Like any kid: pigs love to run thru the sprinkler!

This is a job that will often take three to four hours.  In this heat it's going to take a lot longer because breaks are required every forty five minutes or so!  It's a hot, dusty, smelly job!  At least the barn, with the big doors open at east and west ends, has a decent breeze going through it!  The twins and the triplets are free-ranging right now and are surprisingly quiet, nestled into a shady corner of the barn.  The Mommas are in the pasture, Randi and Gaffer are in pens, waiting to get moved to the clean pen so we can clean out their pen.  Farmer Man is certainly peeving the Hens, who have been displaced from their favorite spots to lay eggs!



In the meantime, in the heat, the Momma goats are finding some shade behind the chicken coop, on the edge of one of the shelter belts of trees.  The Hens are under the trees in the most northern part of the shelter belt, just having a quiet gab.  The Berkshires are being spoiled; we're filling waterers frequently in this weather and when we're in their vicinity we turn the hose on them, which they love!  Took a few tries for them to get used to it, but now they come a running!  That water also helps to replenish their wallow: rolling in mud is a natural instinct for them in hot weather!



In the meantime, as Farmer Man rakes out each pen and loads the debris in the tractor, I come along behind raking and sweeping the bits.  Each pen will be given a good half hour to dry out a bit, then I sprinkle a mixture of baking soda with a good dose of lavender essential oil, which I mixed a few days ago.  This will not only freshen the pen, but will help repel insects. First, though, I shooed the barn cats away because lavender essential oil is not good for them.  Then a clean, fresh bale of straw will be broken into each pen, perhaps two in the larger Momma pen.  We've been waiting on fresh straw from June's cut, because our previous load of straw, from last fall's cut, was not really up to par.

Although we feel guilty for not weeding this is a task that had to be done, and with the fresh straw available now was the time!  We're looking forward to tonight's task....shovelling out the chicken coop!

Finally....

Well, it has taken a while (quite a while!) but the hoop house has been planted!  I intended to write about it, ooooh, four days ago, but we got busy.  We intended to plant it, ooooh, about a month ago, but we got busy.  This season has been a little 'nut-so' thus far!  Bottle feeding three baby goats four times a day, adding milking to our daily chores twice a day, keeping an eye on the baby chicks, caring for now seemingly motherless kittens: animals are taking up an awful lot of our time and the vegetables are getting somewhat neglected!

Part of the point of a hoop house (or high tunnel, or plastic greenhouse or any of the many names I've seen it called) is to get an early start on the season.  We kind of missed that boat, this year.  We had to repair it and waited a bit on the plastic.  Then we decided to move it, because we wanted to use it again for tomatoes and peppers and didn't want to risk passing disease onto new plants.  That was a full day of Farmer Man lifting out the plastic-covered rebar hoops, moving them over then 'planting' each end again.  Then measuring and adjusting, to make sure the doors would fit.  Then we waited for the perfect calm night, with a couple of extra people around (a garden renter named Kyle and our right-hand man, Henry) and then plastic cover was floated into place.  The next day Farmer Man fastened it all in and good-to-go!

One side would be tomatoes, one side would be a double row of assorted hot peppers with some spare ends for some herbs.  Farmer Man has the process of planting down to a science.  Dig a hole almost as deep as the tomatoes are tall, compost and bone meal in the bottom, bury tomato, back fill, tamp with foot.  Tomatoes are one of the few plants that can stand to have their stem buried, and the stem will root, giving you a nice, healthy, strong plant.  The bone meal is to provide calcium and prevent blossom end rot.  Sometimes we use a little of the oyster shell for the chickens (multi-purpose, love it) although this will be slower to break down.  The hardest part of this process was preparing the compost: Farmer Man had to put our compost from the pile through a screen, a job done by the shovel into the wheel barrow to avoid the waste the tractor would cause!

The peppers are largely the same process, just a smaller hole is required as the stem cannot be buried.  By late morning, as the planting job was getting finished, it was getting darn hot in there!  The peppers and tomatoes will love it; Farmer Man was starting to wilt!  We've got basil and parsley in 2" pots ready to fill the corners.  Now, we've got to add to the chore list to go and water the hoop house every two days, every day if temperatures are getting to 28C (about 90F) or higher!  In this crazy year we worry so much about forgetting things like that!

The daily chore list is constantly changing this year!  The kittens will, hopefully, find good homes in the next few weeks.  The triplets will go down to feeding three times and day and then to twice a day and then to no bottles at all. The baby chicks are now teenagers and have moved on to 'big chick' feeders and waterers, which don't require filling as often.  The veggies will require almost constant care from here on: weeding, watering and soon, harvesting!  The work of starting tomato and pepper seeds in February and March: watering and fertilizing, potting up, moving up to the greenhouse, hardening off, planting out....it will all be forgotten when we get that first bite of a fresh, juicy, vine-ripened tomato!

Getting Into A Routine With Milking The Goats!

As you probably know, if you've been following this blog or checking our Facebook Page, we've got baby goats!  Six of them from our three Goatlings.  That means that we've added milking to our daily chores: twice a day, morning and night!  Like anything new, it's been an adjustment, with quite a learning curve, but we're settling into a 'groove' with it now.  Throw into the mix that we've had to bottle feed some of our babies and....well, it has been hectic.  We were fortunate that our birthings were spread out over four weeks, so we've had a chance to adjust slowly.

Goldie was the first to give birth, to a fine, strapping buckling named Gafferty, or Little Gaffer.  We gave them a few days together, then started milking her once a day, in the evenings.  Goldie took to the process quite easily: once she figured out that when she got into the parlor and up on the milking stand grain was to be had, she took to it right away.  When the grain did not appear because her head wasn't in the right place, she made that correction easily, too.  We're realizing now that Goldie has what's called a small teat aperture, and her milk stream is quite tiny.  She's a slow but steady milker (maybe it's a ploy to get more grain....).

Mabel kidded next and, as you may know, immediately rejected her darling triplets.  Wanted nothing to do with them from the moment they dropped and could not be convinced otherwise over the next few days.  We resigned ourselves to bottle feeding the three babies.  Mabel was immediately milked twice a day, occasionally three times a day but was not producing enough for the three babies.  Goldies' extra and a little store-bought goats' milk have made up the difference.  Mabel was resistant to milking at first and did not like to be handled.  All this was very surprising from the doe we considered the most gentle and easy-going.  Persistence and patience have won, and now she and Goldie vie to see who will be first into the parlour for milking (and grain...).  Mabel has a 'heartier' milk stream, and milks a really good amount quite quickly.

Finally, five days ago, Chocolate produced a lovely pair of little doelings!  Again, we left them together for a couple of days and then brought Choco into milk two nights ago.  She's been up on the milking stand before: we trained them all on it by using it for hoof trimming.  She got up on the milking stand no problem, but reacted rather violently to having her udder touched!  She jumps and stamps and kicks and it's really hard work!  We haven't actually gotten any milk from her yet...we're just trying to have patience and get her used to being handled without anybody getting hurt.  The battle will continue, twice a day, everyday....

One thing about the milking that we're very happy with is our Henry Milker Machine.  Great little gadget that does the work for you while keeping the milk clean from debris like goat hair and bedding straw.  It's quite mobile, too, when Choco is kicking and stamping.  Also found a great little recipe for homemade, natural udder disinfectant/teat dip here, which involved essential oils and other products that we already had on hand.  No chemicals and no bleach, which I wouldn't want to use on a regular basis on the goats' skin.  For an udder balm, we're using our homemade lotion bars, instructions and recipe are here.  All in all, milking is going well, for us first timers.  Now, if the ladies would just produce enough for a little soap or cheese!

It's Twins! And Kidding Season is Finished!

I can't believe I haven't blogged since June 4th!  Our Facebook Page has seen lots of quick updates but sitting down to write a blog post has seemed impossible!  June has been C-R-A-Z-Y at Aagaard Farms!  We made a tactical error choosing to have baby goats in May and June; our thinking was that it would be warmer for the little babies.  We should be planting and weeding and watering all the vegetables in May and June!  So, lesson learned and Randi will be allowed to be with the ladies a little earlier next Fall!

Small regrets aside, on June 13th Chocolate finally delivered and produced two gorgeous little girls, Cherry and Chica.  It's another birth we largely missed, just like Mabel!  Chocolate had released her mucous plug, so we knew her time was coming and put her in the birthing pen.  When nothing happened for a couple of days and she seemed calm and relaxed, we decided to put her in the pasture on a lovely morning and get her some fresh air, sunshine and good grazing.  We were working around the area and checking on her regularly.  She seemed at ease, so late morning we decided to grab lunch.  A mere half an hour later we came out to be greeted by Vic, one of the garden renters who waved and called 'So, you had some new babies?'  Farmer Man and I rushed to the pasture to find Chocolate with her twins, under a tree.  Chocolate was proving to be a good mommy and the babies were already cleaned and dried off.  They were trying to stand; so cute on their little skinny, wobbly legs!  Farmer Man went to get the birthing kit while I stayed in the pasture and watched the babies get their first drinks of colostrum.  We tied off and dipped their umbilical cords, checked them over, checked over and congratulated the new mother.  Using the goats' grain treat, we slowly led Choco back to the barn and got everyone settled in the birthing pen.

This whole experience seemed to easy, compared to Goldie's long, difficult birth and Mabel's disappointing rejection of her babies.  We were a little worried about added burden to us, if Chocolate had rejected her babies, too.  But everything is good, everybody is good!  We're getting into quite a routine now with milking and bottle-feeding the triplets.  It does take up more time than we'd like but that requirement will lessen soon as the triplets are weaned.  Already, we're down from four feedings a day to three, which will continue for the next few weeks.  Next, we'll add Chocolate to the milking routine, probably just in the evening milking for at least a few more days, while the twins are so new to the world.  In a week or so we'll start milking her twice a day with the other girls.

All the milk we've been collecting so far has gone to feed the triplets!  Mabel isn't producing enough for them, so Goldie's excess and some store-bought milk have been making up the difference!  No chance to make ourselves a little cheese yet!  And, of course, the point of the goats is to have enough milk to make soap to add to our Farmers' Market wares so we're a little ways off from that, especially considering fresh-made soap has to cure for six weeks at minimum!  Gafferty and the triplets are all showing an ever increasing interest in regular food like willow branches and grass, so we're already looking forward to ending bottle-feeding and just having the chore of milking twice a day.  And we can hardly wait for the first fresh cheese!

The Celery Experiment!

We saw an intriguing thing on some blogs we follow and on a few Facebook pages.  People were re-growing food, from the bits one might usually discard.  Now, not much goes to waste here: we compost most of our vegetable matter , even in winter, to provide us with natural fertilizer; we might make vegetable soup stock from good bits; with pigs here all summer anything vegetable becomes a nice treat!  However, the idea of re-growing food seemed just to good to be true; we'd seen it done with celery, the root end of onions and even carrot tops!

We started ours April 1,  by using the cut base of a head of celery.  It was still too cold to plant outside and the sun room was stuffed with vegetables we'd seeded, so I decided to start it in water.  That way, I would also be less likely to forget about it, as I kept the glass by the kitchen sink.  I kept the water level fairly minimal, to avoid rot.  I was surprised at how quickly we had sprouts: in about a week the centre had a couple of wee shoots coming.  The little celery continued to grow and by Day 27 it was looking pretty good: check it out here.  However, things just seemed to fade out after that!  I began using a bit of seaweed fertilizer in the water, since we had it at hand for all our seedlings.  The little celery did put out some roots, finally, but very little new top growth was happening.  By Day 34 the outer rim of the stalks was beginning to decay, shrivelling up and turning brown.

We've had big fun with this project on our Facebook page: lots of comments, questions and people sharing their experience with re-growing their food.  People who planted it seemed to have better luck, so yesterday ours went into a pot on the patio!  By now, the outer, cut stalks are black and soft, with a little bit of white, moldy-looking bits that I believe are really decayed cell-wall material.  We'll see if it bounces back, now that the roots are in soil.  It being planted time here, I think we'll try another directly into a pot!  Have you ever tried to re-grow your food?

Manitoba Farm Writers Come for a Tour!

We're kind of popular right now, it seems.  Baby goats just seem to attract people; we've seen friends that don't make it out here all that much.  But today we hosted a tour that was organized before baby goats...although the babies were a hit!  The Manitoba Farm Writers and Broadcasters Association had been in touch a few months ago.  They were having a meeting in Brandon, and were looking for interesting things to do.  Someone at, I believe, at Food Matters Manitoba had suggested us, probably for something a little different. I kind of imagine the Manitoba Farm Writers spend a lot of time around cattle and grain: not any of that here!

Shortly after 3:00 PM a couple of vans of people pulled up.  We had had a little thunderstorm and more clouds were threatening but this group was ready - rubber boots and rain jackets were at hand!  We walked about half the property, showing the renters' gardens, the dugout and drainage, our plantings of seeds and seedlings, up to the potato field and planting of winter squash, then down past the Berkshires' pasture and past the chicken coop.  We dawdled a bit with the baby goats and a number of photos were taken!  A quick cruise of the baby chicks and then the greenhouse, still bursting with plants!  Then the group was off, because they had another event in Portage to attend!

Lots of great questions and comments from this group.  These people are very involved in agriculture in Manitoba, although I'm not sure they had seen an operation quite like ours!  There was much interest in the variety of produce that we grow, the acceptance of some of the more unique things we grow, the increasing interest in local and fresh food, the Community Supported Agriculture model and selling at Farmers Markets.  Someone wanted to know if we grow unique things because customers ask for them and, after thinking about it, we had to say we seek out unique and unusual vegetables to keep our customers interested and amused.

I see that the MFWB Facebook page has already posted a picture of one of the members with...you guessed it, a baby goat!  Don't know if any one of our guests is actually going to write about us but one has asked to come back in the late summer or fall to do a piece on all the different potatoes that we grow.  Some winter squash may get some attention then, too!  If you see anything written about us, we'd love to know - good or bad!   

Holy Smokes - It's Triplets!

We've nicely incorporated goat kid Gaffer into our daily routine.  We'd been watching Mabel closely, knowing her time was coming shortly.  Goat mommas release a mucous plug, much like human mommas, and when we spotted it in the afternoon we knew we'd have at least one more baby within twenty four hours or a bit more.  We put Mabel in the 'bonding suite' and checked her regularly.  Farmer Man was taking the early shift and checked on her at midnight.  She was restless, but not showing the signs we've read about like pawing at the ground, making a nest, looking a little wild-eyed, bearing down.  He returned a mere forty five minutes later to find three tiny babies in the straw!  They seemed quite still or a little shivering, unlike Gaffer's first moments.  Momma Mabel was standing away in a corner, looking a little wild, and the babies hadn't been cleaned or anything.  Farmer Man brought the kids under the heat lamp, started to dry them and then came and woke me up.  Waking up to the words 'We've got triplets. They need our help' really gets one going....

So wee and quiet when I first saw the kids!

Back in the bonding suite, getting the babies under the heat lamp and cleaning them with the towels we'd left at hand stimulated them enough to get movement and wee cries.  Noses, eyes and mouths were wiped clean, umbilical cords tied off and dipped in iodine.  Momma Mabel wanted nothing to do with this squirmy pile; she continued to stand in the far corner looking stressed.  We gathered up a nearby large galvanized tub, lined it with clean towels and got the babies under the heat lamp.  They were much smaller than Gaffer, one was very tiny.  Now getting colustrum, the first mother's milk, is very important for the babies' health.  Not only first nutrition, but colustrum shares the momma's antibodies to illness and disease that are present in the environment.  It's critical for the babies health.  We tried to encourage Mabel to come to the tub, to meet her babies, to perhaps help clean them up.  She was not even slightly interested.  I gently took a baby to her and she moved away repeatedly.  I tried to put one to her to nurse and she bolted into the opposite corner.  We were going to have a problem here....

We needed to milk the colustrum and get it into the babies.  This was going to be interesting.  Momma Mabel was a bloody mess and still stressed.  She did not like having her udder cleaned with a warm, damp cloth as I tried to get ready to milk.  We gave her a special treat of some of her grain ration with a handful of raisins and, as she began to eat, I managed to get her wiped clean, disinfected and got the Henry Milker on one teat.  A good dose of very golden yellow milk was collected.  Farmer Man got it into the waiting milk bottle and tried to feed the now crying babies.  The kids didn't know what to do with this bright red nipple coming at them!  Baby goats have to nurse with their heads up to make sure the milk goes to the right tummy.  We, with little experience bottle feeding, squirted a lot of milk at the babies and on ourselves getting used to the bottles and the angles!  Farmer Man continued to try to feed the kids while I re-cleaned Mabel, re-disinfected and collected colustrum from the second teat.  Thank heavens for the Henry Milker, which collects the milk right from the teat into a jar.  Chasing Mabel around with a milking bucket would have been wild and the milk might have been tainted with straw, dust, afterbirth - who knows!

Farmer Man was getting some colustrum into the babies; they were looking stronger and were, actually, all falling asleep.  We were both splattered with bits of milk as well as straw, iodine and assorted other 'barn birthing' debris.  It was now well after 3:00 AM and Farmer Man hadn't been to sleep yet.  We collected milk again from Mabel and Farmer Man headed to bed.  I took the second shift and was quite wide awake, even with just a few hours sleep!  We'd both been running to the house to sterilize and get things we'd forgotten, jogging to the shed for treats, crawling after Momma Mabel -  I think the adrenaline had kicked in!  I sat up through the early morning, a bottle of milk tucked under my clothes to keep it warm!  The babies woke up crying after just an hour and I tried to get more milk in them.  It was a cold, rainy night and I was thankful for the heat lamp.  I kept encouraging Mabel to come to the tub and check out her babies but she stayed off in her corner.

About 7:30 AM Farmer Man relieved me from duty and I headed to bed.  Just a few, short hours later I awoke to the sound of little cries.  I got up to find a tub of kids in my living room!  Farmer Man had made the decision to bring them in out of the cold and to be closer to the stashed milk and ways to warm it up.  Plus, Mabel seemed a little aggressive.  So, we started caring for kids in the house.  Some good pals had wanted to know about the birthing and, shortly after sending a text, our pal Nancy arrived, with cookies, and experience in bottle feeding kittens.  Having an extra set of hands and a patient, nurturing 'Aunty' was just fantastic!  It left Farmer Man to go about the usual chores while Nancy and I warmed milk and fed the now squirmy bunch of babies.  We had thought, in the barn, that we had two girls and a boy, but as we handled and observed them we realized we had two boys and a girl.  What we think was the first born and the largest, a boy, was named Marty.  The second, with spotted ears like Mabel, was named Marble and the little, tiny runt, originally named Myrtle, is named Myrvan.  Marty looks a lot like his Daddy, Randi, while Marble and Myrvan have a caramel color, darker than Mabel and Goldie. So cute!

Someone always managed to get off the paper!
 More little doggy coats in action!

The next five or six hours are somewhat of a blur - Farmer Man and I were both very tired.  It involved milking, feeding, cleaning - over and over.  The babies were slow to take to the bottle and we were so worried about the littlest, Myrvan.  Nancy held him for a long time, trying to get him to take to the bottle.  Even though we tried to get newspapers down and towels around, we and the room were slowly becoming splattered with milk and there were 'accidents' on the carpet.  But, the important thing was that everything seemed to be going well - all the babies were getting fed, and proceeding with bodily functions as they should!  Feed, pee, poop, sleep, pee, poop, feed, pee, poop, sleep...it became a rhythm.  About mid-afternoon pal Deb arrived when she got off work; another set of hands and new energy was greatly needed!  Farmer Man got a wee nap in his easy chair with Marble sleeping on his chest!  When he got mobile again I lay down for a little over an hour!  Thank you, Aunties, for all you help!

The new, cozy crib in the barn!

When the ladies had both left in the evening the babies were sleeping in their tub.  Farmer Man and I went out to milk and finish the evening chores.  Eggs had only been sporadically collected: there was lots of little things to do!  We came in to a squirming, crying bunch of kids and performed another feeding, which was going much better now.  Farmer Man had retrieved a large rubber tote and cleaned it and we put the now drowsy babies in with fresh towels, moved it beside the bed and we all largely slept through the night, until 5:00 AM when the babies started to cry again.  The cycle started again.  By mid-afternoon yesterday, Farmer Man had organized a 'crib' pen in the barn with the heat lamp and in the babies went.  We had a succession of visitors in the afternoon - baby goats are very popular!  I was glad to see poor Gaffer get some attention; our first little baby was somewhat neglected for a day after being the centre of so much attention!  Sunday saw us settling into a bit more of a routine, and everyone seems to be thriving and feeding well!  We did spend some time trying to get Momma Mabel to accept her kids, but no luck; we're resigning ourselves to having three bottle babies.  And added to the 'to-do' list: steaming cleaning the livingroom carpet - soon!

Book Review: Prairie Fruit Cookbook!

I'm in love, love, love with Getty Stewart's new book 'Prairie Fruit Cookbook'!   First, I love supporting things that are local and, second, gardening/cooking books that are specific to our tough climate are a boon.  It's very hard, for instance, to find info on saskatoons in most commercial books; I've often 'faked' out recipes for blueberries, which I figured was the closest sort of berry!  This book has great info for gardeners, bakers, cooks and canners - something for everybody!

Getty Stewart is the founder of Fruit Share Manitoba, a great project working to harvest unused urban fruit and share it with volunteers and community groups like Food Banks and soup kitchens.  Homeowners donate their fruit, volunteers harvest and then all sorts of good things are made and consumed!  What a brilliant idea!  The fruit share concept is in different towns and cities including Vancouver and Edmonton.  I think every town and city to organize a program like this!  In Manitoba, Winnipeg and Steinbeck currently have Fruit Shares, if you're in Brandon and interested please get in touch!

The book opens with some info on Fruit Share and sharing the harvest.  It then has a great chapter on different ways to preserve the harvest for eating local all winter, with good info on canning, freezing and dehydrating.  Then, there are nine chapters on fruit that grows well on the Canadian Prairies, including apples and crabapples, grapes, pears, plums and apricots, cherries, raspberries, rhubarb, saskatoons and strawberries!  Each chapter starts with gardening info on each fruit, then storing, preserving and then cooking and baking info.  The recipes are awesome!  How about Maple Apple Crisp, Grape Granita, Pear Brie and Ham Panini, Sage Caramelized Onion and Plum Pizza, Cherry Martini, Raspberry Jelly Roll, Rhubarb Fool, Saskatoon Salsa Salad or Chocolate Covered Strawberries?  Over 150 recipes, from beverages to main courses!

If you'd like a copy of the book, you can currently order online directly from Getty, using PayPal or credit cards.  I'm really pleased to say that Aagaard Farms is going to be a Brandon distributor this summer, and we'll have copies with us at the Global Market Brandon!  It's also available in Winnipeg at St Mary's Garden Centre, Sage Garden Herbs and Rand McNally.  Highly recommend this book and we really encourage you to make good use of all the lovely fruit growing in your neighborhood!